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Tarquini takes first pole of the season

Gabriele Tarquini dug deep on his final qualifying lap to pip his SEAT team-mate Yvan Muller to pole position for this weekend's first World Touring Car race at Valencia

Reigning champion Muller was heading the train of diesel Leons after the first runs of Q2, but Tarquini's last-gasp effort found another quarter of a second to claim his first pole position of the season.

Muller held on to second spot and will share the front row with Tarquini for race one tomorrow. Jordi Gene and Tiago Monteiro posted the third and fourth quickest times to lock out the top four places for SEAT.

Augusto Farfus was the only BMW to make it through to the top 10 shootout and the Brazlian ended up fifth, six tenths of a second shy of Tarquini's time.

Alain Menu led the Chevrolets in sixth, ahead of independent leader Tom Coronel, with the Chevrolets of Rob Huff and Nicola Larini sandwiching Rickard Rydell's SEAT to complete the top 10.

The remaining four factory BMWs failed to progress beyond Q1 and will fill 11th to 14th places on the grid.

Pos Driver                 Car            Q1            Q2
 1. Gabriele Tarquini      SEAT           1m45.888s     1m44.414s
 2. Yvan Muller            SEAT           1m45.516s     1m44.646s
 3. Jordi Gene             SEAT           1m45.790s     1m44.826s
 4. Tiago Monteiro         SEAT           1m45.542s     1m44.896s
 5. Augusto Farfus         BMW            1m45.638s     1m45.080s
 6. Alain Menu             Chevrolet      1m45.681s     1m45.314s
 7. Tom Coronel            SEAT           1m45.949s     1m45.423s
 8. Robert Huff            Chevrolet      1m46.038s     1m45.440s
 9. Rickard Rydell         SEAT           1m45.424s     1m45.538s
10. Nicola Larini          Chevrolet      1m45.854s     1m45.702s
11. Jorg Muller            BMW            1m46.126s
12. Alex Zanardi           BMW            1m46.221s
13. Sergio Hernandez       BMW            1m46.250s
14. Andy Priaulx           BMW            1m46.331s
15. Felix Porteiro         BMW            1m46.426s
16. Stefano D'Aste         BMW            1m46.525s
17. Mehdi Bennani          SEAT           1m46.615s
18. Marin Colak            SEAT           1m46.633s
19. Tom Boardman           SEAT           1m47.439s
20. Vito Postiglione       BMW            1m47.462s
21. Franz Engstler         BMW            1m47.547s
22. Viktor Shapovalov      Lada           1m47.901s
23. Kristian Poulsen       BMW            1m48.492s
24. Kirill Ladygin         Lada           1m48.530s
25. Jaap van Lagen         Lada           no time

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